The 10th Mechanized Corps was transported to Finish border near Imatra, so it was not involved in the first battles of Operation Barbarossa, being brought out of reserve on 10 July 1941.[4][5]b From that date it formed part of the Luga Operational Group under the command of Lieutenant General K. P. Piadyshev, defending the 'Luga Line'. The Luga Line defences were constructed by 55,000 civilians & which and extended from Narva to Shimsk on Lake Ilmen. It first engaged 8th Panzer Division on 13 July 1941 along with the 177th Rifle Division isolating it from its neighbouring divisions for several days around Dno & costing it 70 of its 150 tanks destroyed or damaged.[6]c

However the Luga Operational Group was encircled & destroyed on 8 August 1941 near Krasnogvardeisk which resulted in losses of 30,000 men, 120 tanks, and 400 guns. The 10th Mechanized Corps was officially disbanded a short time later although individual units continued to exist separately for a short while.[7]

By September 1941 the 198th Mechanized Division had become the 198th Rifle Division and the 24th Tank Division had been dissolved and reformed as the 124th Tank Battalion and 12th Tank Regiment.[8]

b On 11 July 1941 Col P Poluboiarov, Northwestern Front armoured directorate reported that from 10 July, the 21st Tank Division of the 10th Mechanized Corps was put at the disposal of the front. It consisted of one tank regiment, a motorized rifle regiment, an artillery battalion, & other divisional units. It had around 100 old light tanks.

1.
Siege of Leningrad
–
The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, Leningrads capture was one of three strategic goals in the German Operation Barbarossa and the main target of Army Group North. By 1939 the city was responsible for 11% of all Soviet industrial output and it has been reported Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the citys Hotel Astoria. According to a sent to Army Group North on 29 September, After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban center. Following the citys encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot, in this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population. Hitlers ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns, Army Group North under Feldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb advanced to Leningrad, its primary objective. Finnish military forces were north of Leningrad, while German forces occupied territories to the south, thus, it is argued that much of the Finns participation was merely defensive. The Germans planned on lack of food being their weapon against the citizens. On 27 June 1941, the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad administration organised First response groups of civilians, in the next days, Leningrads civilian population was informed of the danger and over a million citizens were mobilised for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defences were built along the perimeter to repulse hostile forces approaching from north and south by means of civilian resistance. In the south, the line ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Gatchina, Uritsk, Pulkovo. Another line of defence passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo, Kolpino, in the north the defensive line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in Leningrads northern suburbs since the 1930s, and was now returned to service. Even the guns from the cruiser Aurora were moved inland to the Pulkovo Heights to the south of Leningrad, the 4th Panzer Group from East Prussia took Pskov following a swift advance and managed to reach Novgorod by 16 August. The Soviet defenders fought to the death, despite the German discovery of the Soviet defence plans on an officers corpse, after the capture of Novgorod, General Hoepners 4th Panzer Group continued its progress towards Leningrad. However, the 18th Army — despite some 350,000 men lagging behind — forced its way to Ostrov and Pskov after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated towards Leningrad. On 10 July, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where advance toward Leningrad continued from the Luga River line. This had the effect of creating siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, the Finnish Army was then expected to advance along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga

2.
Red Army
–
The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War

3.
Leningrad Military District
–
The Leningrad Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet, the Leningrad Military District was originally formed as the Petrograd Military District after the October Revolution of 1917 up to the beginning of the formation of the Red Army. The Petrograd District was established as a part of the Red Army by order в„–71 of the Highest Military Council of 6 September 1918. On 1 February 1924, by the order в„–126 the Revolutionary Military Councils of the USSR the Petrograd military district was renamed the Leningrad Military District, markian Popov was appointed District Commander in 1939. Its main purpose was the defence of the Kola Peninsula and the shores of the Gulf of Finland. On the right flank it bordered with the Arkhangelsk Military District, among the defensive works started in the 1930s to protect the frontiers was the Karelian Fortified Region. Three and a months later the Front was dissolved back into the District headquarters. The Front’s forces heroic efforts played a part in resisting the German attacks during the Siege of Leningrad. By the joint efforts of troops of the Leningrad Front, Volkhov Front, pressing home the attack, the forces of the Leningrad Front in summer and in the fall of 1944 helped seize Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Front was reorganized under the Leningrad District into a status on 9 July 1945. Marshal Leonid Govorov took command shortly afterwards, in 1949 the 76th Air Army became the districts Soviet Air Forces component, after the 13th Air Army was redesignated. General-Colonel of Aviation Fedor Polynin was the first commander of the 76th Air Army, apart from a brief period when the air army was redesignationed the Air Forces of the Leningrad Military District from 1980 to 1988, the 76th Air Army would be active in the region until 1998. General, later Marshal, Sergei Sokolov assumed command in 1965, on 22 February 1968, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Army and for its successes in combat and in political training, the District was awarded the Order of Lenin. Marshal Sokolov later became the Minister of Defence in 1984, in May 1960 the Northern Military District was subsumed into the Leningrad Military District, and Headquarters Northern Military District became Headquarters 6th Army. Among the districts divisions at the time was the 156th Motor Rifle Division, in 1965 the 156th Motor Rifle Division became the 37th Motor Rifle Division. Up to 1967 the 44th Army Corps was located in Arkhangelsk, and then its headquarters was relocated in Transbaikalia and this is probably the former 116th Rifle Corps, raised in 1946 within 2nd Shock Army in Germany. On 3 June 1968 the District was placed on alert, the Norwegian Army raised its alert levels in response. On the evening of 7 June, the Norwegian Garnisonen i Sør-Varanger garrison heard the noise of powerful engines coming from the manoeuvres along the entire Soviet front of the Norwegian-Soviet border, actual observations were not possible over the border in the dark

4.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

5.
Operation Barbarossa
–
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human

6.
Imatra
–
Imatra is a town and municipality in eastern Finland. Imatra was founded in 1948 on the territory of three municipalities – Jääski, Ruokolahti and Joutseno, Finland ceded 11% of its territory to the Soviet Union after the Winter War. Jääski lost 85% of its territory and it was decided that a new municipality, Imatra, should be established on the remaining 15% of Jääski and some areas of Ruokolahti and Joutseno. This is why the Imatra coat of arms has three flashes – in honour of those municipalities that granted areas to it. Imatra is dominated by Lake Saimaa, the Vuoksi River and the border and it gained its municipal charter in 1971. On the other side of the border,7 kilometres away from the centre of Imatra, st Petersburg is situated 210 km to the southeast, Finlands capital Helsinki is 230 km away and Lappeenranta, the nearest Finnish town, is 37 km away. Imatra belongs to the province of Southern Finland and the region of South Karelia. An Art Nouveau or Jugend style castle, currently known as Imatran Valtionhotelli, was built near the rapids in 1903 as a hotel for tourists from the Russian Imperial capital Saint Petersburg. The main employers are Stora Enso Oyj, Town of Imatra, Ovako Bar Oy Ab, as of October 2003, total number of employees was 12,423. As of December 2004,1,868 employees were employed by the Town of Imatra, Imatra is the birthplace of National Hockey League players Jussi Markkanen and Petteri Nokelainen. The mayor of Imatra is Pertti Lintunen, in motorsport history, Imatra is best known for its road races from 1963 to 1986. From 1962 to 1982 it was the home of the Finnish motorcycle Grand Prix, during the Continuation War, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim met with Adolf Hitler in secrecy near the town for the formers 75th birthday. com – Travel information about Imatra

7.
Narva
–
Narva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the extreme point of Estonia, at the Russian border. People settled in the area from the 5th to 4th millennium BC, as witnessed by the traces of the Narva culture. The fortified settlement at Narva Joaoru is the oldest known in Estonia, the earliest written reference of Narva is in the First Novgorod Chronicle, which in the year 1172 describes a district in Novgorod called Nerevsky or Narovsky konets. The favourable location at the crossing of trade routes and the Narva River was behind the founding of Narva castle, the castle was founded during the Danish rule of northern Estonia during the second half of the 13th century, the earliest written record of the castle is from 1277. Narvia village is mentioned in the Danish Census Book already in 1241, a town developed around the stronghold and in 1345 obtained Lübeck City Rights from Danish king Valdemar IV. The castle and surrounding town of Narva became a possession of the Livonian Order in 1346, in 1492 Ivangorod fortress across the Narva River was established by Ivan III of Moscow. Trade, particularly Hanseatic long distance trade remained Narvas raison dêtre throughout the Middle Ages, however, due to opposition from Tallinn, Narva itself never became part of the Hanseatic League and also remained a very small town – its population in 1530 is estimated at 600–750 people. Captured by the Russians during the Livonian War in 1558, for a short period Narva became an important port and trading city for Russia, trans-shipping goods from Pskov and Novgorod. Russian rule ended in 1581 when the Swedes under the command of Pontus De la Gardie conquered the city, during the Russo-Swedish War, when Arvid Stålarm was governor, Russian forces attempted to re-gain the city without success. During the Swedish rule the Old Town of Narva was built, following a big fire in 1659, which almost completely destroyed the town, only stone buildings were allowed to be built in the central part of the town. Incomes from flourishing trade allowed rebuilding of the center in two decades. The baroque Old Town underwent practically no changes until World War II, the new defence structures were among the most powerful in Northern Europe. During the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, Narva became the setting for the first great battle between the forces of King Charles XII of Sweden and Tsar Peter I of Russia, although outnumbered four to one, the Swedish forces routed their 40, 000-strong opponent. Russia subsequently conquered the city in 1704, after the war the bastions were renovated. Narva remained in the list of Russian fortifications until 1863, though there was no military need for it. During Russian rule Narva formed part of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, in the middle of the 19th century, Narva started to develop into a major industrial town. Ludwig Knoop established the Krenholm Manufacturing Company in 1857, the factory could use the cheap energy of the powerful Narva waterfalls and at the end of the century became, with about 10,000 workers, one of the largest cotton mills in Europe and the world

8.
Shimsk
–
Shimsk is an urban locality and the administrative center of Shimsky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Municipally, it is incorporated as Shimskoye Urban Settlement, the urban settlement in the district. It is located on a highway connecting Veliky Novgorod and Pskov,48 kilometers southwest of Veliky Novgorod, Shimsk lies on Shelon River, approximately 10 kilometers upstream from the point where it drains into Lake Ilmen. A number of water sources, notably the ones near the village of Uspolon, are located nearby. In the Middle Ages the Shelon River played an important role as part of the route connecting Novgorod and Pskov. At the end of the 15th century, the area was transferred, together with Novgorod, to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Shimsk was founded in 1878 as a station of the railway connecting Novgorod and Staraya Russa. In the beginning of the 20th century, Shimsk, then a selo, on February 15,1935 Shimsky District, with the center in Shimsk, was established. Between 1941 and 1944 Shimsk was occupied by German troops, on July 5,1944, Shimsky District was transferred to newly established Novgorod Oblast. On February 1,1963 Shimsky District was abolished, and on February 1,1973 it was re-established, on February 5,1981 Shimsk was granted a status of urban-type settlement. Industry in Shimsk is mainly food industry, Shimsk is located on the A116 highway which connects Veliky Novgorod and Porkhov. It is also connected by roads with Luga, Staraya Russa, there are local roads as well. The Shelon is navigable in Shimsk, however, there is no passenger navigation, Областной закон №559-ОЗ от11 ноября2005 г. «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Новгородской области», в ред, Областного закона №730-ОЗ от26 февраля2015 г. «О внесении изменений в Областной закон Об административно-территориальном устройстве Новгородской области», Вступил в силу1 января2006 г. Опубликован, Новгородские ведомости, №75,23 ноября2005 г, Постановление №121 от8 апреля2008 г. «Об реестре административно-территориального устройства области», в ред, Постановления №408 от4 августа2014 г. «О внесении изменений в реестр административно-территориального устройства области», Опубликован, Новгородские ведомости, №49–50,16 апреля2008 г. Областной закон №398-ОЗ от17 января2005 г, Областного закона №728-ОЗ от30 марта2010 г

9.
Lake Ilmen
–
Lake Ilmen is a historically important lake in the Novgorod Oblast of Russia, formerly a vital part of the Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The city of Novgorod lies six kilometers below the lakes outflow, according to the Max Vasmers Etymological Dictionary, the name of the lake originates from the Finnic Ilmajärvi, which means air lake. There are many lakes in Russia with their names being derivative from Lake Ilmen, the average surface area is 982 square kilometres. The lake is fed by 52 inflowing rivers, the four main ones being the Msta, the Pola, the Lovat, and it is drained through a single outlet, the Volkhov, into Lake Ladoga, and subsequently via the Neva into the Gulf of Finland. The source of the Volkhov is marked by the Peryn Chapel built in the 1220s, the basin of Lake Ilmen contains vast areas in Novgorod, Pskov, and Tver Oblasts of Russia, as well as minor areas in the north of Vitebsk Region in Belarus. The water level is regulated by the Volkhov hydroelectric plant situated downstream the Volkhov River, water temperature in July is 19-20 °C. Bathing season is about 90 days, shipping lines are Veliky Novgorod – Staraya Russa and Veliky Novgorod – Shimsk. There is a fishery in the lake, the lake area was the location of an important battle during World War II, the Demyansk Pocket. Media related to Ilmen Lake at Wikimedia Commons

11.
T-26 tank
–
The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the 1930s and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in numbers than any other tank of the period. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models, the T-26 and BT were the main tanks of the Red Armys armoured forces during the interwar period. The T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, as well as in the Winter War in 1939–40. Though nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most numerous tank in the Red Armys armoured force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Soviet T-26 light tanks last saw use in August 1945, during the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria, the T-26 was exported and used extensively by Spain, China and Turkey. Captured T-26s were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies, the tank was reliable and simple to maintain, and its design was continually modernised between 1931 and 1941. No new models of the T-26 were developed after 1940, the T-26 was a Soviet development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank, which was designed by the Vickers-Armstrongs company in 1928–29. The simple and easy-to-maintain Vickers 6-Ton was intended for export to less technically advanced countries, the Soviet Union, Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Thailand, China, and many others. Vickers advertised the tank in military publications, and both the Soviet Union and Poland expressed interest in the Vickers design. In early 1930, the Soviet buying committee, under the direction of Semyon Ginzburg, arrived in Great Britain to select tanks, tractors, the Vickers 6-Ton was among four models of tanks selected by Soviet representatives during their visit to Vickers-Armstrongs. Several Soviet engineers participated in assembly of the tanks at the Vickers Factory in 1930, the first four Vickers 6-Ton tanks arrived in the USSR at the end of 1930. The last tanks arrived in 1932, when production of the T-26 was already in progress. The British tanks were sent to Soviet factories for study in preparation for production and to military educational institutions. Later, some tanks were given to military depots and proving grounds. The Vickers-built 6-Ton tanks had the designator V-26 in the USSR, three British tanks were successfully tested for cross-country ability at the small proving ground near Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill in January 1931. Kliment Voroshilov ordered the creation of the Special Commission for the Red Army new tanks under the direction of S. Ginzburg to define the type suitable for the Red Army

12.
BT-8
–
The BT-7 was the last of the BT series of Soviet cavalry tanks that were produced in large numbers between 1935 and 1940. It was lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed for the time, the BT tanks were known by the nickname Betka from the acronym, or its diminutive, Betushka. The BT-7s successor was the famous T-34 medium tank, introduced in 1940, which replaced all of the Soviet fast tanks, infantry tanks, the first prototypes of the BT-7 had a distinctive canted-ellipse shaped turret mounting both the main gun and a coaxial machine-gun. In the rear of the turret, there was a rotating drum-type magazine for 1845 mm shells or a radio station, the prototype underwent an extensive testing program in the summer and autumn of 1934. As a result of testing, it was felt that a machine-gun was unnecessary on a tank with a 3-man crew. Therefore, in early 1935, the tank went into production with a simpler design, in the production model, a cylindrical turret housed a 45 mm 20K gun with a DT machine gun. On some of the tanks, a model 71-TC radio with frame antenna was installed, the crew consisted of three men, the commander, the loader and the driver. In 1937, the company launched production of the BT-7 with a conical turret, the main armament remained the same, but the ammunition was increased to 44 rounds. All serving tanks now installed the DT machine gun in the rear niche, for the firing of the gun and coaxial machine gun at night, the tank was equipped with two special projector-type headlamps, and a mask placed on the gun. Subsequently, these lights were retrofitted to earlier models of the tank, improvements were also made to the drive wheels, caterpillar tracks and gearbox by 1938. In parallel with the modification,154 BT-7A artillery tanks were produced between 1936 and 1938. These were fitted with a turret and a 76 mm KT-type gun with 50 rounds of ammunition. From December 1939, the BT-7A went into production with minor modifications - additional bracing for rigidity, a floor hatch. The diesel tanks were more efficient, and the petrol-powered tanks were soon placed into reserve. In 1938, four experimental BT-8 tanks mounted with V-2 diesel engines were produced, after comparative tests of the BT-7 and BT-8, the diesel tanks were put into production in 1940 with the powerplants being produced in a separate plant of the Voroshilovets factory to ensure supply. Several experimental tanks were conceived based on the BT series, for example the wheeled BT-IS, Tsyganov, a platoon commander in the 4th Armoured Regiment of the Ukraine Military District and self-taught designer. The type successfully passed field tests, but was not ordered in bulk, another Tsyganov design was the S-2 Cherepaha, with a new design of hull and turret. Finland converted 18 captured tanks into BT-42 assault guns, shortly before Operation Barbarossa, the BT-7 underwent an up-armor program

13.
T-28
–
The T-28 was a Soviet multi-turreted tank that was among the worlds first medium tanks. The prototype was completed in 1931, and production began in late 1932 and it was an infantry support tank intended to break through fortified defences. The T-28 was designed to complement the heavier T-35, with which it shared turret designs, the type did not have great success in combat, but it played an important role as a development project for Soviet tank designers. A series of new ideas and solutions that were tried out on the T-28 were later incorporated in future models, the Kirov Factory in Leningrad began manufacturing a tank that was based on the design of the British Independent in 1932. The T-28 tank was approved on 11 August 1933. The T-28 had one large turret with a 76.2 mm gun, a total of 503 T-28 tanks were manufactured over the eight-year period from 1933 to 1941. The T-28 was deployed during the Soviet invasion of Poland, during the initial stages of the Winter War, the tank was used in direct fire missions against Finnish pillboxes. In the course of operations, it was found that the armour was inadequate. The frontal armour plates were upgraded from 30 mm to 80 mm and side, with this up-armoured version, the Red Army broke through the main Finnish defensive fortification, the Mannerheim Line. According to Russian historian Maksim Kolomiets in his book T-28, stalins Three-headed Monster, over 200 T-28s were knocked out during the Winter War, but only 20 of them were irrecoverable losses. Due to the proximity of the Kirov Plant, all other tanks were repaired. Another explanation was that the vertical surfaces alluded to the stagecoaches of the Wild West. The T-28 was also nicknamed Kivitalo by the Finns due to its large size, the Finns captured two T-28s during the Winter War and five in the Continuation War, for a total of 7 vehicles. The Soviets had 411 T-28 tanks when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, a large majority of these were lost during the first two months of the invasion, many of them abandoned after mechanical breakdown. Some T-28s took part in the 1941 winter defence of Leningrad and Moscow, but after late 1941, they were rare in Red Army service, today, three T-28s remain, two in Finland and one in Moscow. One restored T-28 is on display in Finnish field camouflage in the Parola Tank Museum, a further wreck is stored at Parola, now awaiting restoration and a hull previously used as a bunker was discovered near St. Petersburg. In 1941, the majority of the invading German tank force had worse tactical specifications than the T-28. For example,2000 out of the 5000 total German tanks deployed during Operation Barbarossa were the obsolete Panzer I, the T-28 had a number of advanced features for the time, including radio and anti-aircraft machine gun mounts

14.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

15.
2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. V. Novoselsky when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 and it initially comprised the 11th and 16th Tank Divisions, & the 15th Mechanized Division. On 22 July 1941 2nd Mechanized Corps consisted of 11th Tank Division 181 tanks,1070 vehicles &71 tractors, 16th Tank Division with 99 tanks,870 vehicles &16 tractors & 15th Mechanized Division with 188 tanks, no vehicles &122 tractors. After the invasion began the Odessa Military District was renamed Southern Front, the front fielded the 9th and 18th Armies. Against Generaloberst Schoberts 11th Army, which had penetrated Soviet defenses, however, after initially withdrawing to behind the Dniester River on Tiulenevs orders Stavka ordered 6th Army & 2nd Mechanized Corps to recapture the Prut River line. The line was already in German hands & this decision was far too late, mikhail Kirponos commander of Southwestern Front now ordered 26th Army to wheel about & cover their withdrawal & for 6th & 12th Armies to attack eastwards to meet up. By 20 July, 2nd Mechanized Corps was holding open a narrow corridor upon to the east between LVIII Panzer Corps & 17th Army, another two corps commanders & six division commanders perished in the fighting. 2nd Mechanized Corps was largely destroyed, rkkaww2 states, The residual men of the 11th Tank Division joined the 12th Army. The divisions remnants were reorganised into the 132nd Tank Brigade, later the 4th Guards Tank Brigade, the entire headquarters of the 15th Motorised Division was captured. However, later, the commander, Colonel Laskin, managed to escape from captivity. The residual personnel of the 14th Tank Regiment eventually formed the 71st Separate Tank Battalion, ISBN 0-7006-0879-6 David Glantz, Before Stalingrad Barbarossa - Hitlers Invasion of Russia 1941, Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2692-3 Christer Bergstrom, Barbarossa - The Air Battle, July–December 1941, Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 1-85780-270-5

16.
2nd Guards Mechanised Corps
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The 19th Guards Mechanized Brigade is a formation of the Armed Forces of Belarus based in Zaslonovo, a few kilometers east of Lepiel. The 19th Guards Brigade traces its history back to the 1942 formation of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps of the Soviet Army during World War II, subsequent designations during the Cold War included 2nd Guards Mechanized Division and 19th Guards Tank Division. Following the Cold War, the 19th Guards Tank Division was relocated to Belarus, thereafter, the unit was reduced to a personnel and equipment cadre unit and titled the 19th Guards Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment before being upgraded to a mechanized brigade in 2008. Formed in the Tambov area on 15 October 1942 from elements of the 22nd Guards Rifle Division, by the end of the war, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps commanded the 4th, 5th, and 6th Guards Mechanized Brigades, as well as the 37th Guards Tank Brigade. The corps fought at Stalingrad in 1942-43, at Melitopol in 1943, Odessa and Budapest in 1944, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps finished the war as part of the 6th Guards Tank Army in the area of Benešov, Czechoslovakia, on 9 May 1945. The 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps, like all Soviet mechanized corps, was reorganized as a division in mid-late 1945, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Division was part of the Southern Group of Forces based at Esztergom, Hungary. The division was part of the Soviet forces that crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, on 15 December 1956, the division was reorganized as a tank division and renamed the 19th Guards Tank Division. The 97th Motor Rifle Regiment transferred to the division from the 27th Mechanized Division on the same day, the divisions 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment dropped the designation Self-Propelled, also on the same day. The 67th Separate Tank Training Battalion was disbanded in 1960, in 1961 the 99th Separate Missile Battalion was activated. The 74th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion was formed on 19 February 1962, the 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment became a regular tank regiment around this time. In 1968, the 55th Separate Sapper Battalion became an engineer-sapper battalion, the chemical defence company was upgraded to a battalion in 1972. The 1081st Separate Material Supply Battalion formed from the 690th Separate Motor Transport Battalion in 1980, the chemical defence battalion was once again downsized to a company in 1985. On 7 September 1987, the 99th Separate Missile Battalion became part of the 459th Missile Brigade, among other veterans of the unit, Yuri Budanov served with the division in the late 1980s in Hungary. The 87th Guards Tank Regiment, 99th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion and 74th Separate Equipment Maintenance, the division withdrew to Zaslonov and became part of the 7th Tank Army. Following the end of the Cold War, the unit was withdrawn to Zaslonovo in Belarus 1992, at some point following relocation, the division was reorganized and became a Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment, a partial-strength mechanized infantry formation. One of the equipment storage bases is the 19th, the former 19th Guards Tank Division at Zaslonovo in the Lepiel region, on October 1,2003, the base was considerably strengthened. From other bases of storage of arms and techniques now we are distinguished favorably by new structure, besides a battalion of protection, storage and service, motor-rifle and tank battalions were added. In 2008 the base for storage of weapons and equipment was upgraded into a brigade,2012 reports suggest one-two established manoeuvre battalions

17.
3rd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 20th Motor Rifle Division is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces, originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940, and it consisted of 2nd Tank Division, 5th Tank Division, 84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer and signals battalions. On 22 June 1941, the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 31,975 men &651 tanks, of which 110 were new T-34, the Corps was heavily engaged in the first battles of Operation Barbarossa, particularly during the Baltic Operation and at the Battle of Raseiniai. It stalled the Divisions advance for a day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons. General Erhard Raus, the Officer commanding 6th Panzer Divisions Kampfgruppe Raus, the grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again, the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely. The crew had only been apparently stunned by the shots which had entered the turret. Afterwards they were buried nearby with honours by the German soldiers of the unit held up, however, by early July the Corps had virtually ceased to exist as a formation, though remnants rejoined Soviet lines later. For example, the 5th Tank Division was at Yelnya by 4 July 1941, and consisted of 2,552 men, general Lieutenant M. E. Katukov took command. It was initially assigned to the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front and it took part in Operation Mars alongside the 22nd Army. At the beginning of Operation Mars 3rd Mechanised Corps consisted of 232 tanks, the Corps then fought in the Battle of Kursk, then fought across the Ukraine with the Central, Belorussian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. On 23 October 1943, it was awarded ‘Guards’ status and re-designated the 8th Guards Mechanised Corps, in 1944, it took part in the Zhitomir-Berdichev, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Proskurov-Chernovits, and Lvov-Sandomir battles, in April gaining the Carpathian honorific. It ended the war in Berlin after participating in the Warsaw-Poznan, as part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 1st Guards Tank Army. In the immediate period, the Corps was reorganised as the 8th Guards Mechanised Division. In May 1957, it was reorganised as the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division, bearing honorifics, Carpathia-Berlin, in 1964, the division was transferred to the 8th Guards Army. It took part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia as part of the 1st Guards Tank Army, although when it returned to East Germany, became part of 1st Guards Tank Army in 1983, until 1993. The division was withdrawn from Germany in June 1993, and moved to Volgograd in the North Caucasus Military District, there it was under the command of the reduced 8th Guards Army Corps, formerly the 8th Guards Army. The division remained garrisoned in Volgograd, with parts of the division having taken part in the First, in 2009 the division was disbanded by being renamed the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. a. 133rd Independent Guards Engineer-Sapper Battalion – Leisnig 51° 21’ 40” North, 153rd Independent Chemical Defense Battalion o

18.
5th Guards Mechanised Corps
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The 5th Guards Zimovnikovskaya order Kutuzov II degree Motor Rifle Division, named on the 60th anniversary of the USSR, was a military formation of the Soviet Ground Forces. It traces back to the 6th Mechanized Corps created in 1940 that was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the corps was reformed in November 1942 under the same name, but with a different organizational structure. In early 1943, the 6th Mechanized Corps was granted Guards status and it became the 5th Guards Mechanized Division in 1945, and subsequently the 5th Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1965. The 6th Mechanised Corps began to form on 15 July 1940 at Bialystok in the Western Special Military District and it was attached to the 10th Army in the Bialystok area and was under the command of Major General M. G. Khatskilevich when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941, the Corps initially comprised the 4th, 7th Tank Divisions and the 29th Mechanized Division, as well as smaller units. A report by Major General B. S. Vasilevich, commander of 7th Tank Division, on 4 August 1941 said that the division had been at 98% enlisted strength, the division included 348 tanks, of which 51 were KVs and 150 T-34s. However, there was lack of supplies and it possessed only one to one and a half loads of 76mm ammunition when it entered battle, no armor-piercing ammunition for its tanks, three refills of gasoline, and a single fill of diesel fuel. The fuel ran out quickly, partially due to unclear orders, the division had to move to three new assembly areas within the first two days of the war. The division was soon immobilized south of Grodno, similar to the 4th Mechanized Corps, the 6th Mechanized Corps stood out of the remaining mechanized corps of the Red Army. On 22 June 1941 it was formed, and stationed no further than 100-150 kilometers from the border. The 6th Mechanized Corps was heavily involved in the first battles with Germans, at 23,40 on the day of German invasion, Pavlov ordered his Deputy Front Commander Lieutenant General Ivan Boldin to take command over what would be later called Boldins group. The groups core was the 6th Mechanized Corps and the 6th Cavalry Corps and it is considered part of the larger Battle of Białystok–Minsk. Without adequate ammunition and with tanks in a state of disrepair and sent to several different locations without fuel reserves. A Western Front report on 27 June noted that 6th Mechanized Corps had lost 20–26% of its strength in its 4th and 7th tank Divisions. Solonin stated that the battle that 6th Mechanized Corps saw was an attack of 24 June. The corps dissipated soon without any combat, with negligible losses to aircraft. The corps scattered on 27 June near Krynki, with the personnel retreating east in small groups, communication with the headquarters of Boldin was lost and Major General Khatskilevich died on 25 June 1941. Hoths panzers had reached Vilnius on the 23rd of June, then Grodno, by 25 June 1941 Guderians 2nd Panzergruppe reached Slonim and Vawkavysk and cut off the retreat of the greater part of the 10th and 3rd Armies at Białystok encirclement

19.
6th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 5th Guards Zimovnikovskaya order Kutuzov II degree Motor Rifle Division, named on the 60th anniversary of the USSR, was a military formation of the Soviet Ground Forces. It traces back to the 6th Mechanized Corps created in 1940 that was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the corps was reformed in November 1942 under the same name, but with a different organizational structure. In early 1943, the 6th Mechanized Corps was granted Guards status and it became the 5th Guards Mechanized Division in 1945, and subsequently the 5th Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1965. The 6th Mechanised Corps began to form on 15 July 1940 at Bialystok in the Western Special Military District and it was attached to the 10th Army in the Bialystok area and was under the command of Major General M. G. Khatskilevich when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941, the Corps initially comprised the 4th, 7th Tank Divisions and the 29th Mechanized Division, as well as smaller units. A report by Major General B. S. Vasilevich, commander of 7th Tank Division, on 4 August 1941 said that the division had been at 98% enlisted strength, the division included 348 tanks, of which 51 were KVs and 150 T-34s. However, there was lack of supplies and it possessed only one to one and a half loads of 76mm ammunition when it entered battle, no armor-piercing ammunition for its tanks, three refills of gasoline, and a single fill of diesel fuel. The fuel ran out quickly, partially due to unclear orders, the division had to move to three new assembly areas within the first two days of the war. The division was soon immobilized south of Grodno, similar to the 4th Mechanized Corps, the 6th Mechanized Corps stood out of the remaining mechanized corps of the Red Army. On 22 June 1941 it was formed, and stationed no further than 100-150 kilometers from the border. The 6th Mechanized Corps was heavily involved in the first battles with Germans, at 23,40 on the day of German invasion, Pavlov ordered his Deputy Front Commander Lieutenant General Ivan Boldin to take command over what would be later called Boldins group. The groups core was the 6th Mechanized Corps and the 6th Cavalry Corps and it is considered part of the larger Battle of Białystok–Minsk. Without adequate ammunition and with tanks in a state of disrepair and sent to several different locations without fuel reserves. A Western Front report on 27 June noted that 6th Mechanized Corps had lost 20–26% of its strength in its 4th and 7th tank Divisions. Solonin stated that the battle that 6th Mechanized Corps saw was an attack of 24 June. The corps dissipated soon without any combat, with negligible losses to aircraft. The corps scattered on 27 June near Krynki, with the personnel retreating east in small groups, communication with the headquarters of Boldin was lost and Major General Khatskilevich died on 25 June 1941. Hoths panzers had reached Vilnius on the 23rd of June, then Grodno, by 25 June 1941 Guderians 2nd Panzergruppe reached Slonim and Vawkavysk and cut off the retreat of the greater part of the 10th and 3rd Armies at Białystok encirclement

20.
8th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 8th Mechanized Corps, was a mechanized corps of the Soviet Ground Forces. It was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the formation of the 8th Mechanized Corps began on June 4,1940. The commander was General Lieutenant Dmitry Ryabyshev, the insignia was inspired by Joseph Stalin and his policies towards Germany. Ryabyshevs memoirs said, The new corps was made up elements of the 4th Cavalry Corps, 7th Rifle Division, 14th Heavy Tank Brigade. By June 1941, the corps comprised about 30,000 troops,932 tanks, however, heavy and medium tanks KV and T-34 received only 169. The remaining 763 machines were obsolete models averaging barely 500 kilometres between maintenance checks, and 197 of them were in need of a factory overhaul. Of the 141 guns were 53 caliber 37 and 45 millimeters, means of anti-aircraft defense represented by four 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and 24 machine guns. All the artillery was transported low-speed tractors and it was located at river Styr in the Kiev Military District. It thus became part of the Southwestern Front, and was engaged in the first battles of Operation Barbarossa, the 34th Tank Division itself comprised the 67th and 68th Tank Regiments and the 34th Motor Rifle Regiment. On 23 June General Kirponos, Commander of the Southwestern Front, ordered the 8th Mechanized Corps, part of 26th Army at the time, afterwards, the formation operated assigned to the N. I. It then became embroiled in the Battle of Brody and this forced the 16th Panzer Division to wheel round and attack the 34th Tank Division in the area of Kozin, in order to clear the road. On June 26, attack plans that had been preparation for some time were upstaged by direct orders from representatives of Southwestern Front HQ. Later however the group was encircled and destroyed. In July 1941 the corps command was redesignated Headquarters 38th Army, and thus the corps was disestablished

21.
8th Guards Mechanized Corps
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The 20th Motor Rifle Division is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces, originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940, and it consisted of 2nd Tank Division, 5th Tank Division, 84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer and signals battalions. On 22 June 1941, the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 31,975 men &651 tanks, of which 110 were new T-34, the Corps was heavily engaged in the first battles of Operation Barbarossa, particularly during the Baltic Operation and at the Battle of Raseiniai. It stalled the Divisions advance for a day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons. General Erhard Raus, the Officer commanding 6th Panzer Divisions Kampfgruppe Raus, the grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again, the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely. The crew had only been apparently stunned by the shots which had entered the turret. Afterwards they were buried nearby with honours by the German soldiers of the unit held up, however, by early July the Corps had virtually ceased to exist as a formation, though remnants rejoined Soviet lines later. For example, the 5th Tank Division was at Yelnya by 4 July 1941, and consisted of 2,552 men, general Lieutenant M. E. Katukov took command. It was initially assigned to the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front and it took part in Operation Mars alongside the 22nd Army. At the beginning of Operation Mars 3rd Mechanised Corps consisted of 232 tanks, the Corps then fought in the Battle of Kursk, then fought across the Ukraine with the Central, Belorussian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. On 23 October 1943, it was awarded ‘Guards’ status and re-designated the 8th Guards Mechanised Corps, in 1944, it took part in the Zhitomir-Berdichev, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Proskurov-Chernovits, and Lvov-Sandomir battles, in April gaining the Carpathian honorific. It ended the war in Berlin after participating in the Warsaw-Poznan, as part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 1st Guards Tank Army. In the immediate period, the Corps was reorganised as the 8th Guards Mechanised Division. In May 1957, it was reorganised as the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division, bearing honorifics, Carpathia-Berlin, in 1964, the division was transferred to the 8th Guards Army. It took part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia as part of the 1st Guards Tank Army, although when it returned to East Germany, became part of 1st Guards Tank Army in 1983, until 1993. The division was withdrawn from Germany in June 1993, and moved to Volgograd in the North Caucasus Military District, there it was under the command of the reduced 8th Guards Army Corps, formerly the 8th Guards Army. The division remained garrisoned in Volgograd, with parts of the division having taken part in the First, in 2009 the division was disbanded by being renamed the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. a. 133rd Independent Guards Engineer-Sapper Battalion – Leisnig 51° 21’ 40” North, 153rd Independent Chemical Defense Battalion o

22.
9th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 9th Mechanized Corps was a mechanized corps of the Soviet Red Army, formed twice. It was first formed in November 1940 and disbanded in September 1941 after suffering heavy losses, the corps was formed again in August 1943 at Tula. The second formation fought with the 3rd Guards Tank Army and it participated in the Battle of the Dnieper, the Battle of Kiev, the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive, the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive. The Battle of Berlin and the Prague Offensive, during the war the corps received the honorifics Kiev and Zhitomir and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 2nd class, and the Order of Kutuzov 2nd class. The corps was first formed in November 1940 in the Kiev Military District with the 19th and 20th Tank Divisions, in March 1941, the 19th Tank Division was transferred to the 22nd Mechanized Corps and was replaced by the 35th Tank Division. On June 22,1941, the first day of the German invasion, the 9th Mechanized Corps moved its units towards the town of Irkutsk, into the path of the advancing 14th Panzer Division, which pushed the 131st Motorized Division out of the town. Meanwhile, south of Irkutsk, the 11th Panzer Division secured Dubno, a road hub, against minimal resistance. At the same time, elements of 19th Mechanized Corps 43rd Tank Division recaptured Dubno, the 13th Panzer turned east, and along secondary roads, took Rovno in the 9ths Mechanized rear. However, on June 29, the 14th Panzer, attempting to advance eastward along the main highway, was stopped cold by the 20th Tank Division. The corps commander, Konstantin Rokossovsky, later wrote of this engagement in his memoirs, The terrain off road was wooded and swampy, the artillery Regiment of the 20th Tank Division deployed its newly issued 85mm Guns to cover the road and with direct fire repulsed the advancing Panzers. The 14th Panzer abandoned this route and followed the 13th Panzer Division, both Panzer divisions of III Panzer Corps pushed on, leaving 25th Panzergrenadier Division to protect their rear against repeated attacks by 9th Mechanized Corps to drive into Rovno. The 25th Panzergrenadier Division reported extreme difficulty in holding back the attacks, by the beginning of July, German armor had smashed a hole in the center of the Russian line, and the 13th Panzer stood at the edge of the Kiev fortified district. In another attempt to restore the front, Kirponos ordered attacks from the 5th Army in the north and 6th Army in the south to accomplish this aim, the army still had three mechanized corps under command, the 9th, the 19th, and the 22nd. The 5th Army forces lunged southward and managed to cut the Zhitomir – Kiev highway, the Germans reacted by assigning infantry to clear the road and push the Russians back to the north. On the 9th of July, the corps was still in the Kiev Special Military District as part of the General reserve. September 20,1941 from the remnants of the 9th Mechanized Corps of the 5th Army was formed a combined battalion, the 9th Mechanized Corps formed again in August 1943 at Tula. Its main sub units were the 69th, 70th, and 71st mechanized brigades, the new corps advanced to the Dnieper River and then fought at Fastov and around Kiev in November 1943, and Zhitomir in January 1944. The corps now formed a component of 3rd Guards Tank Army, in April, it was withdrawn for three months rest and retraining before attacking again in the Soviet push to capture Lviv

Siege of Leningrad
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The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, Leningrads capture was one of three strategic goals in the German Operation Barbarossa and the main target of Army G

1.
Leningraders on Nevsky Prospect during the siege, 1942

2.
Antiaircraft guns guarding the sky of Leningrad, in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral

4.
Two Soviet soldiers, one armed with a DP machine gun, in the trenches of the Leningrad Front on 1 September 1941

Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russ

Leningrad Military District
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The Leningrad Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet, the Leningrad Military District was originally formed as the Petrograd Military District after the October Revolution of 1917 up to the beginning of the formation of the

1.
Leningrad Military District Coat of Arms

Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started t

1.
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920

2.
Flag

3.
Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was edited out of the image.

Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Unio

1.
Clockwise from top left: German soldiers advance through Northern Russia, German flamethrower team in the Soviet Union, Soviet planes flying over German positions near Moscow, Soviet POW's on the way to German prison camps, Soviet soldiers fire at German positions.

3.
German soldiers (Flamethrower team) in the Soviet Union, June 1941

4.
Marshal Zhukov speaking at a military conference in Moscow, September 1941

Imatra
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Imatra is a town and municipality in eastern Finland. Imatra was founded in 1948 on the territory of three municipalities – Jääski, Ruokolahti and Joutseno, Finland ceded 11% of its territory to the Soviet Union after the Winter War. Jääski lost 85% of its territory and it was decided that a new municipality, Imatra, should be established on the re

1.
The dam of Imatra

2.
Passport entry stamp from the border checkpoint

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Passport exit stamp from the border checkpoint

Narva
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Narva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the extreme point of Estonia, at the Russian border. People settled in the area from the 5th to 4th millennium BC, as witnessed by the traces of the Narva culture. The fortified settlement at Narva Joaoru is the oldest known in Estonia, the earliest written reference of Narva is in the Fi

1.
Narva Castle

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View of Narva in 2014

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Swedish Lion Monument in Narva

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Peter I of Russia pacifies his marauding troops after taking Narva in 1704 by Nikolay Sauerweid, 1859

Shimsk
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Shimsk is an urban locality and the administrative center of Shimsky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Municipally, it is incorporated as Shimskoye Urban Settlement, the urban settlement in the district. It is located on a highway connecting Veliky Novgorod and Pskov,48 kilometers southwest of Veliky Novgorod, Shimsk lies on Shelon River, approx

1.
Panorama from the bridge

Lake Ilmen
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Lake Ilmen is a historically important lake in the Novgorod Oblast of Russia, formerly a vital part of the Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The city of Novgorod lies six kilometers below the lakes outflow, according to the Max Vasmers Etymological Dictionary, the name of the lake originates from the Finnic Ilmajärvi, which means air l

Krasnogvardeysky District, Saint Petersburg
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Krasnogvardeysky District is a district of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 337,091, the population as of the 1989 Census was 377,765. Krasnogvardeysky District comprises the five municipal okrugs, Bolshaya Okhta Malaya Okhta Polyustrovo Porokhovye Rzhevka Законодательное Собрание Санкт-Петербург

1.
Krasnogvardeysky District on the 2006 map of St. Petersburg

T-26 tank
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The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the 1930s and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in numbers than any other tank of the period. Twe

1.
T-26 mod. 1933 at the museum "Breaching of the Leningrad Blockade " near Kirovsk, Leningrad Oblast. This tank was raised from a river bottom at Nevsky Pyatachok in May 2003.

2.
The prototype of the TMM-1 light infantry tank during tests in early 1932

3.
Maintenance of the T-26 mod. 1931 (with riveted hull and turrets). This tank was produced in the first half of 1932—the exhaust silencer is mounted with two clamps and the cover over the air outlet window. The Moscow Military District. Mid-1934.

4.
Interior of T-26 mod. 1933 turret. Ammunition stowage is on the left side. The side observation device is visible and the revolver porthole which is closed with a plug. Parola Tank Museum in Finland.

BT-8
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The BT-7 was the last of the BT series of Soviet cavalry tanks that were produced in large numbers between 1935 and 1940. It was lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed for the time, the BT tanks were known by the nickname Betka from the acronym, or its diminutive, Betushka. The BT-7s successor was the famous T-34 medium tank, introduced in 194

1.
BT-7M, 1940, with tracks removed from the wheels and carried on the hull

2.
BT-7 tanks on parade

3.
BT-7A artillery support tank was a self-propelled gun variant, armed with a 76 mm howitzer.

T-28
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The T-28 was a Soviet multi-turreted tank that was among the worlds first medium tanks. The prototype was completed in 1931, and production began in late 1932 and it was an infantry support tank intended to break through fortified defences. The T-28 was designed to complement the heavier T-35, with which it shared turret designs, the type did not h

International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning

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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code

2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. V. Novoselsky when the German Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 and it initially comprised the 11th and 16th Tank Divisions, & the 15th Mechanized Division. On 22 July 1941 2nd Mechanized Corps consisted of 11th Tank Division 181 tanks,1070 vehicles &

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A burning T-34 in Russia in 1941

2nd Guards Mechanised Corps
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The 19th Guards Mechanized Brigade is a formation of the Armed Forces of Belarus based in Zaslonovo, a few kilometers east of Lepiel. The 19th Guards Brigade traces its history back to the 1942 formation of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps of the Soviet Army during World War II, subsequent designations during the Cold War included 2nd Guards Mechani

3rd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 20th Motor Rifle Division is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces, originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940, and it consisted of 2nd Tank Division, 5th Tank Division, 84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer

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A KV-2 heavy tank similar to the one from 2nd Tank Division that held up 6th Panzer Division for one day

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Banner of the 68th Guards Tank Regiment

5th Guards Mechanised Corps
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The 5th Guards Zimovnikovskaya order Kutuzov II degree Motor Rifle Division, named on the 60th anniversary of the USSR, was a military formation of the Soviet Ground Forces. It traces back to the 6th Mechanized Corps created in 1940 that was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the corps was reformed in November 1942 under th

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A destroyed KV-1 is inspected by German Troops in Russia in 1941

6th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 5th Guards Zimovnikovskaya order Kutuzov II degree Motor Rifle Division, named on the 60th anniversary of the USSR, was a military formation of the Soviet Ground Forces. It traces back to the 6th Mechanized Corps created in 1940 that was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the corps was reformed in November 1942 under th

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A destroyed KV-1 is inspected by German Troops in Russia in 1941

8th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 8th Mechanized Corps, was a mechanized corps of the Soviet Ground Forces. It was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the formation of the 8th Mechanized Corps began on June 4,1940. The commander was General Lieutenant Dmitry Ryabyshev, the insignia was inspired by Joseph Stalin and his policies towards Germany. Ryabyshev

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Insignia of the 8th Mechanized Corps

8th Guards Mechanized Corps
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The 20th Motor Rifle Division is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces, originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940, and it consisted of 2nd Tank Division, 5th Tank Division, 84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer

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A KV-2 heavy tank similar to the one from 2nd Tank Division that held up 6th Panzer Division for one day

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Banner of the 68th Guards Tank Regiment

9th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)
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The 9th Mechanized Corps was a mechanized corps of the Soviet Red Army, formed twice. It was first formed in November 1940 and disbanded in September 1941 after suffering heavy losses, the corps was formed again in August 1943 at Tula. The second formation fought with the 3rd Guards Tank Army and it participated in the Battle of the Dnieper, the Ba